The Breaker Times

My first USB-C soldering iron was a revelation. “You mean I can make liquid metal connections anywhere, in seconds, just by plugging this tiny stick into a USB cable?” Now, repair company iFixit is introducing its own take on the idea. It claims the iFixit FixHub Smart Soldering Iron is powerful enough for pros and easier for beginners than any others that have come before.

So far, it’s not a new revelation, but after my first couple of hours, I’m loving iFixit’s improvements on an already great idea.

For starters: the $80 iron comes with a heat-resistant magnetic storage cap so you can safely put it away at a moment’s notice, an LED warning light that tells you if it’s blistering hot, motion sensors to automatically shut it off if you set it down for a while or if it falls from your hand, and a triangular grip to keep it from rolling across a surface. I am not a soldering pro, but so far, these features worked beautifully in my early testing.

You can also turn it off with a dedicated power switch on the handle, instead of having to yank the plug like my old Miniware TS80, and it’s far harder to accidentally yank that plug since it has a locking USB-C cable.

If you spend money for iFixit’s $250 kit, it’ll come with an iFixit-designed 55 watt-hour battery that helps turn the iron into a portable soldering station. Its two USB-C outputs provide 100W of power, more than enough to hit the melting point of lead-free solder in four seconds, and its beefy metal temperature dial feels great. Attachment points turn the soldering iron’s cap into an infinitely adjustable holster that lets you put the iron away fast.

If you’re not using two irons simultaneously, the battery’s ports can also charge your phone, thin laptop, or other USB-C gadgets — I saw around 75 watts of output — and iFixit tells me it has other USB-powered tools of its own currently in development.

Plus, as expected from iFixit, the entire power station is easily repairable.

Just remove the backplate with the included Torx screwdriver (iFixit also includes Phillips screws in the box), pop off the shielded battery connector with a spudger, slide out the innards, and it’s just four more screws to disassemble the rest. iFixit will sell you the battery that goes inside for $80, should you ever need to replace it.

I have minor nitpicks. The purple LED that means “iron is cooling down” was initially a bit hard to distinguish from the blue LED that means “safe to touch.” The magnets on the cap are maybe too strong: my soldering tip sometimes gets pulled toward them instead of going straight into the sheath, and sometimes they make me accidentally drag the entire battery pack an inch across the table when I unsheathe it again.

It’s also a slight shame iFixit didn’t adopt the same interchangeable tips as the popular Pinecil and / or Miniware USB-C soldering irons. Even though they plug in roughly the same way, and my old Miniware TS80 tips are a perfect fit, they’re not cross-compatible.

iFixit will sell its own additional tips for $20 each, which is actually less than I paid for a good TS80 tip. (Unlike normal soldering iron tips, USB-C ones have heater cores and temperature sensors inside.)

As much as I’m already enjoying it, I have to wonder how many people would be perfectly happy with a Pinecil. Last year, we introduced you to the $26 open-source soldering iron that’s so inexpensive and easy to use, nearly every nerd might want one in a drawer. It’s harder to say that about an $80–$250 product, particularly when the $80 iFixit version needs to be plugged into a computer to set its temperature, which is cool but not as convenient as its competitors’ built-in screen.

But iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens thinks he can attract a new audience to soldering that would’ve been scared to try it before by eliminating lots of typical pain points. He tells me he wants iFixit to do “everything we can to make sure people want to be able to solder, instead of just being afraid of waving around a hot stick.”

He says he’s “on a new mission to teach the world to solder,” calling solder “the glue of the modern age,” and he says iFixit plans to stock more products to help that happen.

iFixit is opening preorders today and says it’ll start shipping to the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe on October 15th. While additional soldering tips won’t be available for preorder, they should go on sale that day, including cone, bevel, wedge, point, and knife edge varieties.

Today, iFixit will also sell a $300 Portable Soldering Toolkit that fits the iron and battery station into a custom tool roll filled with a laundry list of other common soldering needs or “nice-to-haves,” including a flush cutter, wire stripper, tip cleaner, and soldering splint.